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  • Uprisings: Online Resouces

    With protests continuing, here is a partial list of online resources: For Libya: #Feb17; CNN’s Ben Wedeman; @EnoughGaddafi; For Bahrain: #Feb14, @OnlineBahrain; For Yemen: #Feb3; @JNovak_Yemen; Palestinian: #Mar15 Gulf: @dr_davidson, @tobycraigjones For Saudi Arabia: on Twitter: #Mar11; Webpages and blogs: rasid.com, ysoof.com/blog/?p=242, saudiwoman.wordpress.com, alasmari.wordpress.com, saudijeans.org To translate: translate.google.com Based in the U.S., but with extensive contacts…

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  • “A New Bipartisan Consensus Against Low Income People”

    The president’s budget is a prosaic austerity plan that inflicts disproportionate pain on low income Americans. Fundamental questions about the costs of war and the fairness of tax cuts for the rich have been avoided by the decision to narrowly target non-security “discretionary” spending to bear the weight of deficit reduction. It used to be…

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  • Challenges for Change in Algeria

    Tunisia and Egypt are relatively centralized states, Algeria not so, neither politically, nor culturally, nor geographically. Historically, the interior has been difficult to control, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the country would rally to the protests taking place in the capital as in the case of Egypt. The Algerian regime is…

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  • “Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t”

    CAIRO — Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killing. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including…

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  • Time to forge new, democratic system

    CAIRO — Last night, February 11, Cairo was the scene of what may well have been the largest street party in world history.  It was incredibly powerful and moving.  Of course, the night’s festivities marked both an end and a beginning. Now is the time for Egypt’s judges, other legal professionals, diplomats, other negotiators, intellectuals,…

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  • Our Man in Cairo

    With Mubarak’s departure, the focus now falls on his chosen successor, Omar Suleiman. According to a classified American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman was Israel’s pick to succeed Mubarak. But there’s little doubt that he was also the choice of the United States, or at least of one particular American agency with which he…

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  • Online Resources on Egypt and Beyond

    With protests against the Egyptian regime continuing, here is a partial list of resources: A critical Facebook page is “We are all Khaled Said” — also see the associated webpage elshaheeed.co.uk. (For background on Khaled Said, see IPA news release.) See: egyprotest-defense.blogspot.com; live updates at guardian.co.uk; Al-Jazeera English live blog and video, or via YouTube:…

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  • Hungry Gazans Feed Egyptian Troops

    RAFAH, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS) – Mustapha Suleiman, 27, from J Block east of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, crosses through gaps in the iron fence on the border carrying bread, water, meat cans and a handful of vegetables for Egyptian soldiers stationed on the other side. [See at Inter Press Service]

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  • Egypt’s military-industrial complex

    With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington’s role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings…

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  • Uprising Pays Off -– Sort of

    Today I went to a town only 23 kilometers south of Tahrir Square. The plan was to see if the 11-day uprising in Egypt has produced any benefits so far – just by way of finding something different from the insecurity and chaos in Cairo. Kirdasa, a small town known for its flower nurseries and…

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  • Candidates, Money and Lobbyists

    CRAIG HOLMAN Holman is government ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, which has launched a web page WhiteHouseForSale.org that keeps track of money to candidates. He said today: “Even after John McCain ushered in the landmark McCain-Feingold law banning soft money, and Barack Obama brought us the sweeping lobbying and ethics reform law restricting influence-peddling by…

  • Carlyle Buying Booz Allen Hamilton’s Intel Outsourcing

    AP is reporting: “Privately held consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton … plans to sell a majority stake in its U.S. government business to private equity firm Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion, and spin off its commercial business into a separate company.” TIM SHORROCK Available for a limited number of interviews, Shorrock is author of the…

  • Resigned Lobbyist “Tip of Iceberg” in McCain Campaign

    CLIFF SCHECTER Schecter is the author of the new book The Real McCain. He said today: “Lobbyist Tom Loeffler’s exit from the McCain campaign is only the tip of the iceberg in a candidacy swimming with conflicts of interest. McCain has now asked all of his staffers to fill out a form listing any conflicts.…

  • Bush in the Mideast: A Big Charade?

    NIR ROSEN Currently in Beirut, Rosen is a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security. He witnessed much of the recent fighting in Lebanon and can assess the role of the army and various groups in Lebanon. He said today: “A big part of what is driving events is the creation of…

  • Are Neglected Dams Time Bombs?

    JACQUES LESLIE Leslie’s latest book, Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and was named one of the top science books of the year by Discover magazine. He said today: “Reports indicate that there are 391 small dams in the vicinity of the…

  • Winter Soldier on the Hill

    Boots-on-the-ground veterans are testifying before Congress on Thursday about the effects of the Iraq occupation. This testimony, presented by veterans who have witnessed firsthand the devastation of Iraq and its people, comes on the same day that Congress is expected to debate a bill extending funding for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan through 2009.…

  • $175 Billion Toward $3 Trillion War

    The House of Representatives is expected to have a full chamber debate on the war supplemental bill on Thursday. THEODORE LOWI Lowi is professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and author of several books including The End of Liberalism. He said today: “Supplementals are supposed to be for real emergencies — like Katrina. The…

  • Israel’s 60th

    AP is reporting: “President Bush on Wednesday opened a celebratory visit to Israel … ‘We consider the Holy Land a very special place, and we consider the Israeli people our close friends,’ Bush said. … The Palestinians are marking the 60th anniversary of the ‘nakba,’ or catastrophe…” ALICE ROTHCHILD Currently in Washington, D.C., Rothchild is…

  • Voter ID Battle

    The lead story in today’s New York Times reports: “The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. “The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter…

  • Mother’s Day

    The first Mother’s Day proclamation, an impassioned plea for peace, was written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. MEDEA BENJAMIN BAN ADIL SARHAN Benjamin is a founder of the women’s peace group CodePink and is just back from Jordan and Syria, where she met with many Iraqi refugees and grassroots organizations working with them. A…

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